Early Reviews of Destiny: Unfulfilled Potential

Destiny is a first-person shooter set in a persistent, online world. It was released on Tuesday by Bungie, the development studio behind Halo, and billed as a blending of console shooters and progression-based MMOs. Reviews for the game are finally trickling out, and most publications say it's merely average. (Though it's worth noting that the social and multiplayer portions of the game are difficult to evaluate in such a short timeframe, and like many MMOs, Destiny will continue to see active development.) Polygon's Arthur Gies reports, "Destiny doesn't look real, but rather, it looks like painted concept art, meticulously assembled and presented to you at all times. Instead, it's the suggestion, through Destiny's concept, its soundtrack and its visual presentation, that Destiny is big. That there's a whole universe out there to explore, a reality worth discovering. There isn't, though."

Jeff Gerstmann at Giant Bomb had a similar reaction: "There are cool little flashes of brilliance in Destiny, but a lot of it feels like a game designed by people who weren't sure what sort of game they were designing. Is it a loot shooter? Sort of, but the loot isn't very good. Is it an MMO? No, but you'll occasionally encounter other players out in the field. A story-driven shooter like the Halo franchise? Sure, if you don't mind digging through the developer's website to find those little bits of lore." The Escapist's Jim Sterling concludes, "Destiny exists in the shadow of multiple games, taking a little from each, and doing nothing truly remarkable with any of it. It's a prime example of how the nebulous concept of 'content' can be used to puff up a game without adding anything to it."

Comments

"console shooter"

[Anonymous Coward]

There's yer problem.

Speaking as someone who likes shooters, AND who likes consoles, console shooters are rubbish. There's a degree of control you can get on a PC with a keyboard and mouse that you'll never achieve on your couch with a console controller.

It's just the wrong mix of controller and game, just like a mouse (by itself) would be a terrible input device for platformers.

The right device for the right game. Consoles aren't the right device for shooters.

Re:"console shooter"

[drinkypoo]

Speaking as someone who likes shooters, AND who likes consoles, console shooters are rubbish.

If you are expecting them to give you the same experience as using a mouse, then they are quite rubbish. But they can be enjoyable, so long as they aren't trying to be both things. On the other hand, aside from the thorny issue of whether to mix PC and console players in multi (answer: no) it's often possible just to ratchet up the default difficulty for the PC. Halo was certainly a doddle by comparison on the PC, aside from segments driving vehicles where I found the difference to be negligible, but that didn't make it any more or less exciting (or the levels near the end any less boring.)

A console is a fine place to present a shooter that's heavy on story. And if you don't like those games, you can just avoid console shooters and spare yourself a lot of wasted time- wasting.

Re:"console shooter"

[Skarjak]

I find that shooters which make use of vehicles a lot are actually better controlled on consoles. Twin sticks are superior to WASD + mouse for controlling tanks and such. That's why Halo made sense on consoles.

Call it what it is...

[bl968]

As I stated when I watched the first couple of people playing the game on twitch.tv the reviewers should call a turd a turd. Bad AI. Many NPCs were simply standing in the open firing 1 shot a second while allowing the players to shoot them with 10 in the same time frame. The entire goal of Destiny is to extract $60 from your pocket with very little care given to ensuring that you are satisfied in the end. I think that most serious gamers will walk away from Destiny in the first week, two at the outside; and be left feeling wanting.

Re:Call it what it is...

[CrashNBrn]

I've yet to see any MMO that has even half of the "features" of some of the best MUDs from the early/mid 90's. But they sure look purty,

That title needs work, for one thing

[wonkey_monkey]

Early Reviews of Destiny: Unfulfilled Potential

I'd have gone for a more confident title, for a start.

Re:That title needs work, for one thing

[Anonymous Coward]

How about "Destiny: It turned out that it was better working for Microsoft than Activision, all our best staff members quit, oh yeah enjoy the game"

Re:Borderlands meets Halo

[Truekaiser]

I have watched level playthroughs.
Describing Destiny as the love child of Boarderlands 2 and Halo is pretty apt if you add to it that it takes the worst aspects of both.

It's like Boarderlands 2; except that the bad guys do not drop as much loot of either ammo or weapons, even when you're at a higher level they are bullet spongy so imagine how much more they will be when at or below their level, Guns have ammo pool types but you will run out of ammo faster than borderlands 2, at the end of each mission like Boarderlands 2 you can have one or several gun or item loot chests but the game only gives you 30 seconds to find it and take what you want before being booted back to the mission selection menu, and to get anything decent you have to grind.

It's like halo; except the bad guys are different in name only, the good guys no matter how you can customize their look will look like spartans, Well wait.. no it's just halo by any other name.

Shades of...

[yoshi_mon]

This game smacked to me of Titanfall marketing. And appears to have delivered the same level game. Nothing bad but not anything near the level of hype that the marketing inspired.

But the marketing DID deliver the hype level sales and that is all that matters to the publishers. So while the culture of pre-orders based on marketing hype that is backed up by paid for "reviews" exist this cycle will repeat.